How do young people see themselves today? How do they make decisions as they go through school? What effect does going to different schools have?

This book is based on a major eight year Australian research study that followed a number of girls and boys at four different schools from the beginning of secondary schooling through every year until their first year beyond it. The study was set up to look at girls and boys from different backgrounds, and to look at what happened to similar young people going to different schools, as well as what happened to different types of girls and boys attending the same school. It was set up to take a close-up look at what gender meant to girls and boys now; and how their individual and family qualities interacted with the particular school setting they encountered. The stories of young people and their schools in this book are one way readers might revisit some important current debates: debates about the role of public and private education; perennial questions about the shape and patterns of educational inequality; and the current concern with citizenship and values - what kinds of people are schools forming today?